


Kaddish

by RuBecSo



Category: Vampire: The Requiem
Genre: Family, Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21759937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuBecSo/pseuds/RuBecSo
Summary: For a moment she was silent. Then she let out a crackling laugh.“I knew you’d come.” Her voice was faint, wheezing.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Kaddish

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of several vignettes about the backstory of my character at Crucible, a live-action roleplaying game in the Vampire: the Requiem setting.

December 2008

The hospice was open to visitors at all hours, but with the sun set a few hours ago and the evening settled in, there were few cars parked outside. Joe paused under the almost leafless oak tree by the entrance, checking the address. He stepped around a heap of damp leaves and walked up the steps. It was as quiet inside as outside, but the lights were on in the hallway. The place had that aggressively clean, medical smell. It was funny, the things that stayed the same no matter how much else changed.

He found the visitor’s desk at the end of the hallway and waited until a nurse arrived. 

“Evening. I’m here to see Mrs Levitt?”

“Are you a relative?” Her accent was central European.

“Uh, yeah.” His eyes flickered to the side for a fraction of a second. “Great grandson.”

She smiled at him, then gestured along the hallway.

“She’s just along here.”

As he followed her along the hallway, Joe caught the odd muffled voice from behind the closed doors. A care worker chatting away. A young woman reading out loud. An old man mumbling about being late for school.

“You from Poland?” he asked after a few moments.

“Yes…?” She glanced at him, eyes wary like she was waiting for a punchline or an insult. He supposed that was another thing that never changed, even if the targets did.

“ _Miło cię poznać._ ” The language tasted odd on his tongue. 

She seemed pleasantly surprised.

“ _Mówisz po polsku?_ ” 

He shrugged self-effacingly. 

“Not very well. It’s been a while.”

Before she could ask him how long that was exactly, they’d arrived. When he walked in, he had a moment of uncertainty about whether it was the right room. The woman in the bed seemed far too small, too thin. Her skin was papery and translucent. She appeared to be fast asleep, head lolling to one side and mouth hanging open, but when he pulled up a chair she stirred at the noise. Her eyes took a few moments to focus on him, but when they did, the recognition that sparked in them was enough to instantly dispel his doubts.

“Yoshke?”

He tried a smile.

“Sarah.” 

For a moment she was silent. Then she let out a crackling laugh.

“I knew you’d come.” Her voice was faint, wheezing.

He wasn’t sure what to say. So he didn’t say anything.

“You went to see Ma too,” she said after a few moments, “didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“She swore it. Right up to the end. No one believed her.”

“Except you?”

Her eyes were sharp in her sunken face.

“I always knew.”

“Yeah, you did.” He picked at a loose thread on the chair arm. “It’s why I had to go.”

“My grandson’s named after you.”

“I know.”

She paused. Then realisation spread across her face.

“Of course.” Another wheezing chuckle. “You’re Jack Glover, aren’t you?”

He nodded.

“You paid Josh’s bail. Back in ‘78.”

He nodded again.

“And Mr Gordon? The loan for Hannah’s shop?”

Another nod. Sarah swallowed and closed her eyes. Joe wondered if she’d dropped off, but then she spoke once more:

“And Ruth’s first husband?” Her eyes opened and bore into him. Green, like his. “Was that you too?”

He nodded one more time. She winced and looked away.

“Well,” he said, voice sharper than he meant it to be, “he never did it again, did he?”

She shook her head, but she still didn’t look at him.

“Why are you here?” she said after a while.

“Same reason I went to see Ma, I guess.” He shrugged, staring down at his hands. “Just wanted someone to call me Yoshke again.”

***

On his way out, he passed the nurse as she went in after him. From the hallway, he heard her speak:

“Your great grandson’s a very sweet young man.”

Had his hearing been human, he might not have caught the reply:

“That was my brother.”

A pause, just long enough to pat someone on the arm.

“That’s nice.”


End file.
